World of Satellite-News Updates

[Red]

May 2nd, 2013
NSR (Northern Sky Research)... Satellite Manufacturing + Launch Services Analysis (Reports)

NSR’s 3rd edition Satellite Manufacturing & Launch Services (SMLS3) report is the...
...definitive guide for opportunities within the sector over the next 10-15 years. Through extensive primary research with all satellite manufacturers and launch providers, SMLS3 is the result of a rigorous bottom-up analysis segmented by 9 satellite manufacturing verticals and all geographic regions. Beyond units ordered and launched, this report provides a transparent forecast of their mass and power categories as well as the market sizes. This accurate & actionable information is regularly used as a core component of strategic business plans across the globe.

In parallel, this study features a meticulous and thorough analysis of the satellite manufacturing and launch services industries’ strategic environments. It delivers a comprehensive and detailed assessment of the current situation and trends, drivers and restraints in the industry and in each vertical market.

Finally, NSR contributes to strategic decision-making in this ever-changing environment by assessing key success factors required to thrive in the satellite manufacturing and launch services industries. The report also features a platform assessment and a Launch Services Providers competitiveness index, an objective presentation and ranking of each provider, to enhance the current & future satellite operators’ business case analysis. This report answers fundamental questions facing the Satellite Manufacturing & Launch Markets:

How many GEO communications satelliteswill be ordered per year in the next 10 years?
What will be the impact of electrical propulsion?
What will be their mass & power?
How many satellites with use exclusively, or partially, multi-spot beams and HTS architecture?
How do the platforms compare to each other?
What are the satellite manufacturers’ market shares?
Will commercial demand compensate for budget cuts for EO satellite orders? Is “smaller” the way to go for EO?
How many satellites will be ordered per year in the next 10 years for each of the 9 verticals?
Which demand from which regions?
How open are the markets?
What does and will it take to thrive as a satellite integrator? Which addressable manufacturing markets from which vertical?
How will the Launch Services competitive landscapelook like in the next 10 years?
Will launch supply match launch demand?
How do Launch Services Providers compare to each other?
How will new entrants impact the current players?
How likely is a new price war?
What does and will it take to thrive as a Launch Services Provider?
Which addressable markets for Launch Services Providers given their launch-vehicle capabilities and their region of origin?

 

[Red]

May 2nd, 2013
NOAA... Instruments Of Observation (Satellite)


The first of six instruments that will fly on GOES-R, NOAA’s next-generation of...
...geostationary operational environmental satellites, has been completed seven months before its scheduled installation onto the spacecraft. The instrument, the Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors, or EXIS, will provide forecasters at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center with some of the most important early warnings of impending solar storms. It will also give scientists a more accurate measure of the extremes in solar energy radiating toward earth, which can severely disrupt telecommunications, air travel, and the performance of power grids.


GOES-R artistic rendition courtesy of NOAA/NASA. “Severe space weather has the potential to cause significant damage to the U.S. and global economy, so it’s critical GOES-R has this technology in place as quickly as possible to monitor it,” said Mary Kicza, assistant administrator for NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service.
GOES-R, scheduled to launch in 2015, will be more advanced than NOAA’s current GOES fleet. The satellites are expected to more than double the clarity of today’s GOES imagery and provide more atmospheric observations than current capabilities with more frequent images. Data from the GOES-R instruments will be used to create many different products, enabling NOAA meteorologists and other users to better monitor the atmosphere, land, ocean and the sun, facilitating more timely and accurate forecasts and warnings.

The University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) built and tested EXIS. EXIS will be shipped from the LASP site in Boulder to Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. in Littleton, Colorado, later this year to be installed onto the spacecraft. Lockheed is building the GOES-R spacecraft.

You may download a NOAA/NASA video of the GOES-R satellite at this direct link.

The remaining GOES-R instruments to be delivered are:

The Advanced Baseline Imager, the primary instrument on GOES-R for imaging Earth’s weather, climate, and environment
Geostationary Lightning Mapper, which will provide for the first time a continuous surveillance of total lightning over the western hemisphere from space
The Space Environment In-Situ Suite, which consists of sensors that will monitor radiation hazards that can affect satellites and communications for commercial airline flights over the poles
The Solar Ultraviolet Imager, a high-powered telescope that observes the sun, monitoring for solar flares and other solar activity that could impact Earth
The Magnetometer, which will provide measurements of the space environment magnetic field that controls charged particle dynamics in the outer region of the magnetosphere. These particles can be dangerous to spacecraft and human spaceflight
NOAA manages the GOES-R Series Program through an integrated NOAA-NASA program office, staffed with personnel from NOAA and NASA, and co-located at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources.

 

[Red]

May 6th, 2013
Lucid Logistics...Data Delivery Is Guaranteed (GPS)

Lucid Logistics of San Luis Obispo, California, has developed and released the first secure GPS...
...all-satellite tracking system with guaranteed data delivery—technology that will enable worldwide customers, such as those operating trucking fleets, to increase their efficiency and employee safety, the company said. To help fill the current backlog and pipeline of orders for the LL AMS-500i tracking system, Lucid Logistics said it has ordered 20,000 GPS all-satellite modems from Quake Global, a leading manufacturer of modems for mobile resource management. Lucid has not disclosed the cost of its investment in the system.

Lucid, which offers a wide range of products, services and solutions for worldwide fleet and asset management, has 15 employees—13 at its headquarters in SLO and one each at its offices in Mexico and Peru and is budgeted to employ 22 to 24 people this year—there is a backlog of orders totaling millions of dollars. (Source: The Tribune, SLO.)

 

[Red]

May 6th, 2013
Nepal + China... The Feasibility Factor (Satellite)

Ananth Krishnan of The Hindu reports that as Nepal finally goes ahead with...
...long-overdue plans to examine the feasibility of launching its first satellite before 2015, the country may turn to China, which has, in recent years, helped a number of developing countries, including some of India’s neighbours, with financial and technological assistance for their satellite programs. Officials in Kathmandu told China’s official Xinhua news agency that Nepal was open to the idea of leasing its first satellite “to either China or India or both” for commercial purposes. They were quoted as saying Nepal had recently formed a committee “to study the feasibility of launching its first satellite.” An orbital slot provided by the International Telecommunication Union to Nepal many years ago will expire in 2015, prompting Kathmandu to embark on the long-discussed project with new-found urgency. Nepali government officials told Xinhua they would look at launching the satellite through a “joint venture of national and international firms along with the Government of Nepal.”

China’s Great Wall Industry Corporation (GWIC), which has helped launch satellites for a number of developing countries, from Pakistan and Sri Lanka to Bolivia and Nigeria, is expected to make a pitch for cooperating with Nepal on the project, having voiced its interest in principle in the past to Nepali diplomats. GWIC is also in talks with Bangladesh over its satellite program.

China’s dual offers of technological assistance and financial support through favourable loans from the China Development Bank have found favor with many developing countries. China’s recent success in launching satellites, particularly for countries in India’s neighborhood, has concerned New Delhi, with officials from different government ministries meeting last month to come up with a strategy to respond to China’s moves.

As The Hindu reported, the Cabinet Committee on Security in March asked the Indian Space Research Organisation to become more active in responding to neighbors’ needs after reports from the Research & Analysis Wing highlighted how India’s lack of interest in the recent past had enabled China’s fast-expanding success in this field. Nepali government officials told Xinhua, “If Nepal is unable to entirely use the satellite for its internal consumption, it can be leased to either China or India or both for commercial purposes.”

 

[Red]

May 6th, 2013
Northrop Grumman... Moving On Up + Rewarding Flights... (Business + Awards)


Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has announced that it will appoint...
...Andrew Tyler chief executive for the United Kingdom and Europe, effective July 1. In this new position, he will play a leading role in supporting the company's current programmes, developing strategies for growth and identifying new business opportunities for the company's activities in the U.K. and Europe, including NATO countries. Tyler joins Northrop Grumman from Siemens' Marine Current Turbines, where he was chief executive officer. Prior to that, he was chief operating officer at Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) in the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD), the organization responsible for the procurement and support of all the equipment used by the British Armed Forces.

Tyler has more than 20 years' experience leading and managing science, engineering and technology businesses and international business development within a variety of markets including offshore oil and gas, commercial maritime, environmental and defence. During his five year period at the MoD, Tyler was director, Land and Maritime in the Defence Procurement Agency, directing a wide portfolio of projects including the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, Type 45 destroyer, armoured fighting vehicles, artillery and munitions projects, and the F-35 Lightning II aircraft. When the DE&S organization was formed, he then became director general, Ships, with responsibility for directing the procurement and support of all the Royal Navy's surface assets. Tyler became chief operating officer of DE&S in 2008, a role in which he has been widely credited with transforming equipment support to Afghanistan, and in achieving major performance improvements in the delivery of complex engineering projects. Previously, Tyler held a number of senior executive roles at BMT, the independent maritime engineering, science and technology consulting and technical services company.


Additionally, Northrop Grumman Corporation presented awards to the winning teams of engineering students from the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) following the...
...two-day Innovation Challenge flying competition for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) held April 23-24 in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). Now in its third year, Innovation Challenge is sponsored by Northrop Grumman, Abu Dhabi Autonomous Systems Investments (ADASI) and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Foundation.

The winning team, Emirates Robotics from Dubai Men's Campus, and the runner-up team, Spirit of Al Ain from Al Ain Colleges, will receive a trip to the AUVSI annual convention in Washington, D.C., in August. The teams will exhibit their winning unmanned aircraft and describe their design process to industry and government representatives. The third place team, Seven Stars from Al Ain Colleges, will also receive a trip to the AUVSI annual convention, courtesy of ADASI.

Eleven teams of students worked with Northrop Grumman engineers over four months to design, fabricate and fly unmanned aircraft. As part of the flying competition, the aircraft had to meet specific criteria related to speed, endurance and weight. Each team was also judged on an oral presentation. The flying competition began with a memorandum of understanding between Northrop Grumman and HCT that was signed in 2010 to create initiatives related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics in the U.A.E. The first competition was held in 2011 and has expanded over the last two years to include 11 teams for a total of 77 students.

 

[Red]

May 6th, 2013
NASA... Phone Pics... (Imagery)

The images of Earth below were reconstructed from photos taken by three...
...smartphones in orbit, or "PhoneSats." The trio of PhoneSats launched on April 21, 2013, aboard the Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility and ended a successful mission on April 27th. The ultimate goal of the PhoneSat mission was to determine whether a consumer-grade smartphone can be used as the main flight avionics for a satellite in space.


Images Credit: NASA Ames
During their time in orbit, the three miniature satellites used their smartphone cameras to take pictures of Earth and transmitted these "image-data packets" to multiple ground stations. Every packet held a small piece of the big picture. As the data became available, the PhoneSat Team and multiple amateur radio operators around the world collaborated to piece together photographs from the tiny data packets.

The PhoneSat project is a technology demonstration mission funded by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters and the Engineering Directorate at NASA Ames Research Center. The project started in summer 2009 as a student-led collaborative project between Ames and the International Space University, Strasbourg, Germany.

 

[Red]

May 6th, 2013
Here's Looking @ Earth... Ships "Paint" The Clouds (Imagery)

When ships and islands interact, it’s usually because ships are...
...docking or departing with passengers or cargo. But ships and islands interacted in a different way in the northern Pacific Ocean in April 2013. The result looked like marbled paper. Clouds that formed around ship exhaust (ship tracks) mingled with cloud vortices that had formed off of the Aleutian Islands.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image on April 20th. The ship-track clouds and cloud vortices occurred inside an area of relatively clear skies inside a larger expanse of marine clouds. The long, thin ship tracks stretched roughly east-west, and appeared slightly brighter than the surrounding marine clouds.


The relative brightness of ship tracks results from the way they are formed. Cloud droplets form as tiny spheres of water around airborne particles, or aerosols. The particles may be natural—such as desert dust or sea salt—or artificial—such as the particles from ship exhaust. Compared to natural aerosols, ship exhaust particles are smaller and more concentrated within a given area, seeding smaller, more numerous cloud droplets. The spheres of water in clouds all reflect sunlight, but some reflect light better than others. Compared to a big sphere, a small sphere has a greater surface-to-volume ratio, and the greater surface area makes for a better reflector. So water droplets in ship-track clouds reflect more light than cloud droplets seeded by natural particles.

Although the ship tracks over the Pacific Ocean in late April 2013 mostly ran east-west, some took on swirling shapes, perhaps caught up in the cloud vortices off the Aleutian Islands. When a moving air mass encounters an obstacle such as a volcanic island, the wind flow is disrupted. Downstream from the obstacle, von Karman vortices sometimes form. These double-row vortices alternate the direction and rotation of air. Clouds make the vortices visible, and the results are beautiful paisley patterns. A line of vortices can be seen stretching southward from Tanaga Island.

Yet another distinct cloud formation is visible in the image above: Ship wave clouds. Just as vortices can result from an obstruction to air flow, air that rises and falls can create atmospheric wave patterns. Clouds near the wave tops are brighter than clouds near the wave bottoms. These clouds are named for the waves formed in the wakes of boats.

 

[Red]

May 6th, 2013
PCI Geometrics... The Connection For KOMPSAT-3 (Imagery)

PCI Geomatics now supports KOMPSAT-3 imagery within its software suite.
KOMPSAT-3, a new satellite built and operated by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), was launched on May 12th, 2012, from the Tanegashima Space Center of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan. KOMPSAT-3 is an optical imaging satellite capable of imaging the Earth with a resolution of 0.70m Panchromatic and 2.8m Multispectral (Blue, Green, Red, Near-IR). KOMPSAT-3 includes the Advanced Earth Imaging Sensor System (AEISS), which is a high-resolution imager (Pan and MS). This prime instrument of the mission was developed by KARI.

PCI has performed quality control on the imagery to determine the achievable accuracy, and found the correction of the KOMPSAT-3 imagery to be very accurate using the Rational Polynomial Coefficients (RPC) provided. The support for KOMPSAT-3 will be available in a future service pack for Geomatica 2013 and can be deployed now in PCI’s enterprise-level production systems. PCI’s support for KOMPSAT-3 will include RPC model creation and the Toutin Model (allowing for very accurate corrections using the satellite orbital ephemeris data), as well as rapid and high-quality pansharpening capability. KOMPSAT-3 images have been provided by Satrec Initiative, which holds the exclusive right for global distribution right for the KOMPSAT series of satellites.

 

[Red]

May 6th, 2013
DigitalGlobe™ + Siwei WorldView Collaborate For Imagery = Millions Of Kilometers

...provide more than 8.7 million square kilometers of imagery, covering more than 90 percent of China’s landmass...


Through Siwei WorldView, DigitalGlobe’s joint venture partner in China, DigitalGlobe has recently established several new relationships, and strengthened existing relationships, throughout China, reinforcing their value they provide to customers of high volume and quality imagery products.

Most recently, Siwei WorldView secured a new agreement to provide more than 8.7 million square kilometers of imagery, covering more than 90 percent of China’s landmass, to a prominent organization in the country. The imagery will support the organization’s ongoing mission to create a nationwide basemap. Upon completion, the basemap will provide updated, high-quality geo-data resources.

Earlier this year, Siwei WorldView also secured new agreements with two prominent Chinese civil governments focused on management of land resources. Under one agreement, Siwei WorldView will provide 57,000 square kilometers of archived imagery, helping form the base layer of a high-resolution digital map of the entire rural area of the respective province; under the other, Siwei WorldView will provide imagery of China’s most densely populated urban areas in more than 15 provinces.

Late last year, Siwei WorldView also fostered a new multi-year relationship with one of the country’s largest providers of location based services (LBS), digital mapping content and navigation solutions. Under this contract, Siwei WorldView will provide the company with archived imagery for a total of 350 cities in China.

These new relationships add to Siwei WorldView’s previously announced contracts with China’s three largest Internet portals, which use DigitalGlobe’s imagery extensively in their online mapping services.

 

[Red]

May 6th, 2013
International Datacasting (IDC)... Beefing Up The Government Net (SatBroadcasting™)

International Datacasting Corporation (TSX:IDC) ("IDC" or the "Corporation") has been awarded a contract to support the...
...U.S. Government, valued in excess of USD $1Million, for the expansion of its worldwide satellite broadcast network. The contract includes the selection of additional SuperFlex Pro Data receiver/routers for a centralized broadcast network that distributes encrypted data files and live streams to remote U.S. government agencies throughout the world. This order was based upon the customer's previous experience with IDC receivers as robust and highly reliable units for its mission-critical communications. This solution enables the U.S. Government to optimize and expand its distribution network to additional global agencies.

The receivers provide a highly secure and reliable network to deliver live streams and file-based programming to a large worldwide network of remote sites. This fully integrated solution allows for the reception of IP content over satellite via a secure, encrypted link and seamless distribution into the local LAN. As part of its SuperFlex networking solution, IDC provides end-to-end secure networks to its global customer base.